IN Although rent strikes in support of the national Grants Campign ure still continuing in over 40 colleges, the lack of central co-ordination and leadership by the National Vuion of Students is beginning to have its effects.
In a number of colleges students are now facing legal and other forms of intimidation from the Vice-Chancellors, those people who were put forward by the NUS leadership as students' allies in the campaign. At Reading the administration has attempted to withhold grants from those still on rent strike, although the Students Union is challenging the legality of this through the High Court and some of the students affected are trying to obtain a writ of mandamus with the hacking of NUS to enable them to "seize their grants. At Dundee, things have gone further with an attack on the autonomy of the Students Union through the suspension of its constitution.
The ettects this intimidation can have were clearly shown at Keele, where the threat of legal action brought about a rapid end to the tent strike on a motion from the Communist Parcy Last Monday week (30 April, At Kent too a motion to drop the rent strike in face of lega] threats was narrowly pushed through with CP support last Monday after Digby Jacks of NUS had personally intervened in favour of it, On Tuesday, however, realising that this move had left them absolutely naked and powerless to do anything to push forward the campaign, there was a rethink and it was decided to withhold this term's rent while paying in last termi's. But such confusion can only open up the way for an all-out national attack on the rent strikes.
LEADERSHIP The NUS leadership has so far shown no signs of coming to grips with this situation and giving a lead in action to defend those militants under attack. One wuy forward was shown in practice this week by students at the North-Eastern Polytechnic in London who orginised a 48-hour occupation-strike of the adoun. block at their Barking precinet. Their aim was to use the occuFrom the Tory government's point of view the nastiest resurrection this Kaster was that old spectre, the balance of payments problem. The March trade deficit of £197 millions was the worst ever.
Of course, as Ministers always say, you can't prore much from one month's figures. The trouble is that the longer term looks little better. There are no particuar excuses for these catastrophic figures; they are simply the continuation of two vears of steady and massive deterioration in the balance of pay. ments. The 'current account (trade in goods and services plus overseas protits) showed a £1,000 million suplus in 1971, more or less broke even in 1972, and in 1973 is careering towards a deficit which those trusted economic astrologers, the National Institute of Beonomic and Social Research, currently Lorecast at C800 million.
PRICES The main cause is not the amount of goods being imported and exported. Industrial expansion is pushing up the amount of imports specially industrial raw materiab. But the volume of exports is also climbing, and British capitalists in recent months have just about clung on to their share of world trade. The main trouble & prices In the months of monetary turbulence since June 1972, sterling has got devalued by about 12 per cent. This means that, though some exportems bave pushed up their profit margins, most. British goods are now cheaper in foreign currency; the complement of that is that prices of British imports in sterling have risen But the major cause of soaring import costs is the world-wide explosion in the prices of raw materials, especially wheat, wool and copper. Raw material prices have gone up over 60 per cent since January 1972 (more than In the famous Korean inflation of 1950-51) and are still climbing. Aside from the trade situation, the balance of payments is aggravated by a continuing haemorrbage of capital overseas. If the Tories can't solve this problem, they face another major sterling crisis. The weapons at their disposal, bowever, are very limited. Direct import controls or tariffs are virtually outlawed by Common Market rules Against a speculative attack on sterling the gold and foreign currency resertes, if the Tories used them, might not last long: during the June 1972 crisis, which led to the Goating of the pound nearly one third of the reserves disappeared in a single week. A further devaluation, or downward float, would probably encounter fierce resistance from other capitalist goveruments,
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ACCOUNT Trade Deficit - a warning !